EL SEGUNDO HERALD August 13, 2020 Page 3
Letters
St. Anthony School Closure
After reading your article about St. Anthony’s
closure I am left wondering why this article
was written and why the front-page treatment?
Education is a fundamental value
of the Catholic Church and the decision to
close the school was ultimately decided by
the LA dioceses when only 23 families could
commit to returning in the fall. Instead of
being compassionate to the situation and
the problems that all private schools have
with distant learning valuation, you choose
to blame a poor priest who has been doing
everything to prevent closure. This paper
needs to examine their reporting bias and
relevance to El Segundo community. We
have been poorly served.
– Liz Staley
New Leadership at
St. Anthony School
In your July 30, 2020 article entitled “Venerable
St. Anthony Elementary School Shutters
Classroom Doors” Father Robert Victoria
attributes closing the school to necessary
economic hardships associated with Covid.
In truth, Fr. Robert blaming Covid is merely
face-saving. His inabilities to manage are
long known. I sent four sons to St. Anthony
school from 2000-2016; worked directly with
families, teachers and staff; served the PTO;
coached sports teams, and; saw first hand
Fr. Robert’s vain passive-aggressive nature
destroy the school ministry.
In the 2015-16 school year I wrote a series
of letters to Fr. Robert and the archdiocese
warning of this pastor’s nepotistic practices,
questionable financials and of the hostile
work environment he created for teachers
and staff. I suggested partnership solutions
to monitor and advise and further warned
Fr. Robert’s unchecked conduct would result
in the school’s demise. Only once, after the
fifth letter, Fr. Robert responded threatening
expulsion of my son. In total, a dozen letters
and a 25Mar2016 letter to this Editor, were
produced warning of this pastor’s ineptitude.
The archdiocese never responded. Ultimately
teachers, staff and families left in large
numbers. Enrollment plummeted and never
recovered. Fr. Robert’s failings as a spiritual
and parish leader are the worst kept secret
at the archdiocese. Yet he blames Covid for
this long-coming school closing. Fr. Robert
has been a disaster and should resign, so
St. Anthony can hopefully find a capable
minister. Sadly, the only thing that will get
archdiocese attention - parishioners sitting
on their wallets.
– Edward Grant •
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Linda Johnson from front page
driver drop-offs to grateful essential workers.
“Even if they do not use (the masks), people
are just so touched that someone is thinking
about them.”
Johnson, an El Segundo High School graduate,
has done much more for the community
than volunteer at the Woman’s Club. She
has served on the board of the El Segundo
Education Foundation for more than a decade
and is also a pivotal ambassador for the El
Segundo Museum of Art (ESMoA).
Barbara Boehm, ESMoA Director of Operations,
said Johnson is “one of our rock-star
volunteers and friends of ESMoA since day
one. I cannot picture an opening without her.
She is an advocate and a true friend of ours.”
“Linda enriches ESMoA on so many levels,’
emailed Boehm. “She is a wonderful,
loving, caring, generous and fun person you
can always count on. Her involvement and
support at ESMoA are a gift to us and to our
community at large.”
Johnson said that she relishes her work
with ESMoA, calling it “an amazing educational
place,” and that it gives her another
opportunity to make a difference and utilize
her passion for the arts.
She believes that the ESMoA fills a gap
for creative students looking to broaden their
horizons and that the groups “art educators
are phenomenal.” She feels the vibe of a collaborative
El Segundo community that values
the support of the arts and science, saying,
“supporting our kids is something that I need
to be involved with.”
Another passion for Johnson, who graduated
from Long Beach State, is her long-standing
support for education, which she gets to fulfill
by pitching-in with the Ed! Foundation as
they attempt to fulfill their pledge to the El
Segundo Unified School District for the current
school year, a task that has become infinitely
more challenging with the implementation of
distance-learning.
“I believe that education strengthens you
as a person,” Johnson said. “Education gives
you opportunities and options.” She said that
she has “had a wonderful life because of
education.”
Local business owner Neil Cadman, who
served multiple years as the Ed! Foundation
chairman said Johnson is a pivotal cog in
the fundraising group’s success. “She might
be the nicest person that I have ever met,”
Cadman said. “She is such a positive force,
a beautiful person.”
Johnson, who lives in El Segundo with her
husband of nearly 40 years, Bob, hopes to
go back to filling her days at the Chamber
of Commerce doing whatever tasks are necessary.
She was helping promote members
through social media, planning community
events, like the state-of-the city luncheon and
the Main Street car show, fine-tuning myriad
community mixers, as well as taking care
of the nuts-and-bolts activities like paying
invoices, billing COC members, and showing
her prowess wielding a vacuum when the need
arises at the Chamber’s Main Street office.
She works in tandem with Hansen, in what
Johnson said is “a great partnership, we just
love working together.”
Prior to beginning her stint with the Chamber,
Johnson spent nearly three decades working for
El Segundo’s Computer Sciences Corporation
(CSC), where she rose to the post of senior
manager, corporate communications. She was
instrumental in developing communication
content, working in consort with executive
teams to manage all aspects of design and
event production. She called her time with
CSC “an amazing experience. I am forever
grateful for my career with them.” She said
it was exciting being part of a group that was
pioneering technology, and that she “learned
something new every six months.”
After CSC relocated to Virginia in 2011,
Johnson worked as a freelancer for about nine
months. She then went to work in Westchester
for Otis College of Art and Design, serving
as the executive assistant to the president for
three years. During her tenure at Otis College,
Johnson managed all administrative duties for
the office of the president, interfacing with
major donors, Board members, community
and arts leaders and college leadership. Once
Otis selected a new president, Johnson found
herself looking for another challenge, and
quickly found work at the COC. Timing, it
is said, is everything.
When not working or volunteering, Johnson
said she likes to paint, draw, exercise,
fancying ballet, and fly-fishing, but has not
been able to do much fishing in the past few
years because of the effects of the long-term
drought in California.
Despite being cooped-up, waiting out this
pandemic, Johnson puts a hopeful spin on our
current situation, noting that there are valuable
“lessons learned” from telecommuting work
opportunities and that “you have to try to look
at the positive.”
Not overly excited about sharing her story
with this reporter, Johnson quipped that “I am
very reserved about this, can you tell? I do
not like to have the focus on me because I am
not doing anything special.” Many El Segundo
community members would beg to differ! •
Borders & Boundaries
By Dr. Don Brann
This is the first of my occasional columns
around topics pertinent to El Segundo and its
surrounding cities or areas. I’ll cover a variety
of issues or observations such as boundaries/
borders, residential life east of Pacific Coast
Highway (PCH), the historical Japanese presence
in El Segundo, comparing/contrasting
local schools and so on.
Before I begin topic one, I want to dedicate
these columns to my infamous great
grandfather, William Cowper Brann. Brann’s
“The Iconoclast,” was a newspaper published
in Waco, Texas, and had more than 100,000
subscribers west of the Rockies in the 1890s.
Brann was very opinionated, possessed a large
vocabulary and was bombastic in his writings
and oratory. He was fearless and willing to
take on established powers. Eventually, Brann
was attacked and then killed in a downtown
Waco duel. He and his work continue to be
studied in Texas to this day.
I want to address the borders around El
Segundo.
First off, the boundaries of the City are
roughly the Chevron Refinery or Rosecrans
on the south, the sand dunes between Imperial
and Grand, and then the Pacific Ocean on
the west, Imperial Highway on the north, and
Aviation on the east.
Remember, or know, this town started when
Standard Oil located their second (El Segundo
means the second in Spanish) California refinery
here, so we have blue-collar roots. Actually,
despite the nature of that business operation,
the southern border may be El Segundo’s
most attractive one due to Chevron’s community
consciousness. Also, mostly thanks
to Continental Development, the Rosecrans
section, east of PCH, of the southern border
has really been enhanced by the replacement
of ugly industrial complexes with attractive
retail and office developments east to Aviation.
On the west side of El Segundo, along Vista
Del Mar, there is one industrial blight after
another between Imperial and Rosecrans—
Hyperion and Scattergood Steam Plant (DWP)
in the City of Los Angeles with Chevron and
Clearway Energy (NRG) in El Segundo.
Would a desalination plant really stand out
in this cluster? Perhaps, in its relative beauty.
El Segundo has a beach, but is not a “beach
city” partly due to the disconnect caused by the
industrial plants. Certainly, the Pacific Ocean
is the best feature of the west border, but the
ambiance does not measure up to the three
beach cities to the south. One fairly recent
improvement near the west border occurred
when the nondescript tank on the south side
of Grand was “wrapped,” creating a welcome
artistic flair.
El Segundo’s northern border is Imperial
Highway and LAX, a major source of noise
and air pollution, as well as massive traffic
problems visited on El Segundo. The division
between the City of Los Angeles and the City
of El Segundo is a median strip running eastwest
in the middle of Imperial Highway from
PCH to Pershing Drive.
It is unkempt and ragged, making the view
of El Segundo from the north unattractive.
This condition has persisted for years due to
neglect by the City of Los Angeles. Typically,
the City of LA (LAX) creates a problem for El
Segundo like the median or early turns over El
Segundo by pilots and then promises to remedy
the conditions in exchange for concessions
related to airport expansion. LAX is the big,
bad “neighbor,” no city should have to tolerate.
The eastern border, roughly Aviation Blvd.,
from Imperial to Rosecrans, is as ugly as
possible, a real eyesore, moving south to El
Segundo Blvd. It’s loaded with construction
equipment, dirt/debris piles, lumber, etc. related
to Metro and LAX projects to the north. It’s
been a blight for years, much to the chagrin
of Del Aire residents.
On this border, there is some hope caused
by the Greenway proposal to create a beautiful
walk/jog/bike path that eventually could tie
into a network of safe bike paths across El
Segundo. The only real remaining obstacle
to transforming the east border is a railroad,
the BNSF, now unwilling to cooperate (not
a surprise!).
On El Segundo Blvd., there is a decrepit
railroad bridge spanning the street. Instead of a
mural or, at least, a “Welcome to El Segundo”
on the east face and “Thanks for Visiting” or
“Come Again” on the west face, there is a
beige paint period, a wasted opportunity to
enhance the east entrance to the City.
So, there you have it, a great City surrounded
by four “world-class” borders and bad “neighbors”
like the City of LA, LAX and Metro.
However, at the same time, average residential
market values in El Segundo now have surpassed
$1.5 million, so these borders don’t seem to
impact or undermine real estate values. In fact,
the borders do provide a relative geographical
isolation for the City of El Segundo.
With the surrounding boundaries protecting
the town and causing the majority of entrances
and exits from the east, it’s a choice to visit El
Segundo. Unlike travel through surrounding
cities, you just don’t drive through El Segundo,
as LAX, the Refinery and the Pacific Ocean
discourage such a route. •
“Hate comes from intimidation,
love comes from appreciation.”
– Tyga